The land Of Make-believe!!!

PART ONE.

The night was humid. One of those nights when you wanted to sleep under a comforting quilt but then wanted to kick it off when the heat became unbearable. June!!!. The month of the longest days and the shortest nights. The month when the summer solstice loomed.

Whilst out having drinks with her friends that evening, someone had laughed that the planet Venus was visible from the dawn sky that night. The conversation had then naturally moved onto how Venus was the goddess of love, beauty, prosperity and victory. Everyone had laughed about how someone in their group may meet their true love that very night but strangely enough for Mariana, that night was going to be the start of a chain of events that she could not control, neither would she want to in hind-sight.

Sitting up in her bed, she picked up her watch which was laid on the bed-side table and gasped. It was 3am but there was no way that she would get any more sleep at this time. There were too many things going round and round her head. Too many unanswered questions.

Mariana reluctantly climbed out of bed and threw her hair up into a pony-tail. There was one place she could go to at this time of the morning and it was calling to her. Pulling on her jacket, Mariana left the confines of her flat, clutching the book she had bought the other day from the quaint little second hand book shop around the corner and walked the two minutes to her favourite little coffee shop. She didn't care that she was still wearing her favourite unicorn pyjamas. They were comfy.

London was such a vibrant, multi-cultural and exhilarating city. Steeped in tradition at one end and modernistic at the other. It attracted people to live there from all over the world. Some came for riches, some came for Love but Mariana came for work.

She had trained as a nurse in her home country of Brazil but the very world of work that she had once known had changed greatly. When the promise of a new life in London was made open to her, Mariana jumped at the opportunity. She was 28 and though it ached her to leave her parents, it was the chance of a life-time. The biggest type of adventure. Her parents told her that she needed to get out into the big world and spread her wings. 

Rules stated that Mariana had to work for a year in the UK in a health related job before she could apply for her nursing PIN number and then she would officially be a qualified nurse. Until then, she had been working as a health care assistant. It wasn't everything but it paid the bills and allowed her some freedom. Mariana had also signed up with a local nursing bank agency, which allowed her to pick up extra shifts when there were bills to pay. Hey!. This wouldn't be forever. It was work and in some respects, that had brought her to Mario's Coffee shop that morning.

Mariana had received a rather short and to the point e-mail response to one she had sent a few weeks before. The advert in the nursing journal had simply requested a general nurse to help a well- known music act with their up-coming tour. No photographs. Just the brief outline of the job. She felt instantly attracted to the advert and it seemed like only a few minutes later that she was hitting the send button on her e-mail application, remembering to include her resume and photograph.

Now, Mariana was sat on the well worn and battered brown leather sofa in Mario's and reading... well, trying to read. The e-mail has asked for her to attend an interview that afternoon at 4pm. Mariana didn't know whether to feel nervous or excited but the thought of an adventure intrigued her. Sitting there, nursing a very large latte, Mariana again turned to her book. She loved to read. To write also but reading had always been her number one passion. It allowed her to take herself away. To take herself to new lands and new adventures. Every book that she read became the means to escape. Every page that she turned, allowed her to take herself to her land of make believe. She barely noticed the bell above the door sounding, indicating another customer. She was too engrossed.